Trickster I and II Profiles
Trickster I (James Jesse, Giovanni Guiseppe)
His real name is Giovanni Guiseppe, but his main alias and what everyone calls him is James Jesse, a play on words of Jesse James. His villain alter ego is called Trickster.
James is a con artist for Italy. Like many other characters he has roots in the circus. He is an ex tightrope aerialist. He invented his air walk shoes so that he wouldn’t fall, and so he could do tricks no one else could. He uses these shoes later to attain flight.
James loves to play tricks, but has more of a general humor. His classic weapon is the exploding yo-yo and rubber chicken and expanding/sticky gum.
James reforms for a time and joins the FBI as a special agent. He is part of the “The Death of the Flash” series. He is also a big player in the “The Rogue War.”
In the “Countdown to Final Crisis” series he is chained to Piper by the suicide squad. They are on the run, but Trickster is ultimately killed by Deadshot just outside the Mexican border; although it comes out later it is actually a priest on Darksied who is manipulating things that kills Trickster so that Piper will play what he calls the “anti life equation.”
Piper is forced to cut the still chained hand of Trickster off to survive. During this time Piper is hearing Trickster talk to him, through the dead body.
Tricksters will is left to Piper who is currently decoding and acting on the information he now has. Trickster told Piper that he was in every Rogues will and that he had copies of all their weapons and other things. He told him it was for safe keeping. In the will that Piper is reading Trickster has all sorts of secrets for all of the Rogues, of note he has the names and locations of their family members, even the ones they cannot find.
Trickster is fun loving and just wants to make people smile; he is relatively harmless, causing injury, but not death. He is every bit a performer, loving the big and over the top antics that he has made his trademark. He loves being the center of attention. He is also very creative when he comes up with his prank ideas. The jar of nuts and the jack in the box of the flask annuals is very amusing. Cold is the first Rogue that he teams up with against Berry Allen.
Trickster doesn’t want to hurt people he just wants to make people smile, this comes out when the Top releases him and the new trickster and he tells Axel that his conscience is clear.
Although Trickster makes fun of Piper and makes lots of gay jokes, he often takes his side. For example when Mirror Master and Piper start fighting and Trickster is the only one who takes Pipers side when betting. They are good friends and Piper has taken his death very hard.
Trickster II (Axel Walker)
The second Trickster is a very recent character. He first appears in The Flash (Wally West Series, Vol2) issue 183. He is one of Blacksmith’s Rogues. The other Rogues don’t really know what to think of him. He has some issues and doesn’t come off as a very smart person (what happens when you drop out of school at 16). Cold makes comment about him attaching his “T” bombs onto homeless people so that he could record and sell the tape. It is because of actions and comments like that that he constantly getting hit around, they seem to be knocking some sense into him, but it is taking some time.
His parents are divorced, and it is then that his father tells him: “Axel either you are the one being tricked or you are the Trickster.”
He makes more of an appearance in the “The Rogue War,” the same time that Captain Boomerang II, Owen Mercer. He meets Owen at Captain Boomerang’s funeral and make comment about his costume, only to have Gambi shoot him down about his own appearance.
In the “Rogues Revenge” miniseries he is once again wearing the Trickster costume. He has been using the Rogue lairs and is surprised when they arrive, no one knowing what happened to them (Salvation Run). The Rogues get rid of Axel’s crew, but he has little regard for them other than as lackeys. He feels safe doing so because it is rumored that the first Trickster is dead and he was beaten and warned not to wear the costume again.
He helps the Rogues get their revenge on Inertia. The Rogues are starting to teach him and bring him into their world and their rules. He is complaining about the rules, but is following along; he wants to be part of the group. For now he is well on his way to becoming one of the Rogues gallery.